March 18, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz discuss the implications of government shutdowns and continuing resolutions, the use of the Alien Enemies Act by the Trump administration, and the role of judicial activism in contemporary politics. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
#governmentshutdown #Trump #AlienEnemiesAct #judicialactivism #politicalcommentary #Censorship #COVID19 #LabLeakTheory #SchoolClosures #MediaAccountability #PublicHealth #Misinformation #Representation #PandemicLessons #FuturePreparedness
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
normalist takes for women, use kids weird.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I am Mary Kathy him and I am Carol Marco
and H'm Mary Catherine. How was your weekend?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
It was pretty good. Had a nice dinner out, enjoyed
some chill time yesterday. Not really much going on as
far as plants. Watched robin Hood with my kids yesterday,
the Disney one.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Do they like it?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
That's a fantastic That's one of my favorites.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I haven't seen it. I have to see that one.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, gosh, it's so great.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Added to my list.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, well, they basically it was like nineteen seventy three
strange time, and they basically took English Middle medieval figures,
folk heroes and made them into rednecks. And that's why
I like it.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I like that, Okay, I'm going to enjoy that.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Clearly some good country music. It's fantastic. It's a weird thing.
It's a weird movie.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Speaking of medieval times. I went to the Renaissance Fair
in South Florida this weekend because I really love my
twelve year old son, who is you know, into this
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
It was ninety degrees.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It was like on dirt, so like as you're eating
their wares or whatever, it's like dirt is flying up everywhere.
It felt very medieval.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I gotta tell you that. I was gonna say, that's
very much like the true experience that you're having. Aside
from the ninety degrees, right.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I felt like I was suffering the way they might
have been suffering. So yeah, I wanted to give a
shout out to my friend Josh Hammer. He has a
book out today called Israel and Civilization, The Fate of
the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. It
is doing super well on Amazon right now. It's number
three on the entire site. I haven't read it yet,
(01:43):
but I know it's going to be a banger because
Josh is really smart and has it going on.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, I will look for that. I did not pre
order it, and I need to get on it.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I have pre ordered. I should be getting it today.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, alrighty well, I got some news coming out of
the Capitol.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
You know what I'd to myself, Carol. Every time we
do a fight over a government shut down and a
continuing resolution, which is these stop gap measures that they
passed when they can't figure out how to do the
rest of the budgeting, I think to myself, let's get
back together and do this in a couple of months,
which is what we do every single time. So you'll
remember in fall or in during the lame duck Biden time,
(02:22):
right before Christmas, they passed another continuing resolution that got
us to now, so the government was not shut down
over Christmas, that wasn't shut down in January or February.
We get to now and once again they have to
have this conversation. They're having this conversation about a continuing
resolution that basically continues what was happening.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Right in there.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
In the name, it just continues what was going on
during the Biden years. There are some things that are
in there that make it, don't make it totally clean,
as they call it, but it's basically that the House
by some miracle passes it. Way to go Speaker Mike Johnson.
I don't know how he managed that with his tiny margin,
but they passed it, and Democrats didn't know what to
(03:07):
do after that. I think they thought Johnson would fall
on his face. So this continuing resolution to prevent a
government shutdown, which I can have many problems with the
funding of the government as it stands, but they were
preventing a shutdown by passing this. It goes to the Senate,
at which point Schumer sort of promises some resistance he
(03:30):
can't really deliver. He's like, we should stand up against this.
We can't vote for a thing Trump once, the thing
that we already voted for and are on record supporting.
And also our whole argument to the American people is
that government is sacro sanct and important in their everyday
lives and we should not be on the side. Yes,
(03:53):
that's their argument. So then they're on this weird tight
wire tightrope where they're like, well, we can't vote for
anything Trump wants, but also we don't want the government
to shut down because the government is our greatest love
and passion. So Schumer ends up announcing, after sort of
fainting that he might block it. He announces, now I'm
(04:16):
going to vote for it, and that thing passed the Senate,
and oh boy.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, they're mad. The squad is mad. You know. It's
interesting because I very rarely say that I think Schumer
did the right thing. You know, I'm not against shutting
down the government and figuring out what our spending should be.
I get that it's portrayed as like antics or not
being serious or not being the adult or whatever. But
(04:44):
had that happened, Schumer would have gotten the blowback of it.
He is absolutely right to protect his own hide. Basically
the fact that the resistance or whatever they're called these days,
the squad people want him to stand in the way
of Trump getting any wins whatsoever. They don't seem to
(05:06):
realize that it will harm them, And I don't know
if it will harm them specifically. AOC is going to
get re elected no matter what, and you know people
like her in the Senate as well. But Schumer is
you know, feeling definitely some heat and is concerned that
it's going to affect.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Him well and for them. So I'm with you that sometimes,
like if there's a I know that the government shut
down is not smart politically for anyone basically. Let's however,
you and I are like, I mean, if the O
and B has to be declaring who's essential and non essential,
okat to hear who's non essential that I'm paying to
(05:46):
be at work. So that was what the Democrats were
up against because they're like well, if russ vaute over
at omb a Trump administration official and who who they
say is like the father of Project twenty twenty five, right,
that dude is put in charge of deciding who's essential
and non essential during a government like, I don't think
that will go well for our cause, which is federal bureaucrats.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So they're right, they're right, And while I would like
to see you know, that happen, they're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
For stopping that from happening. But they do have this
left leaning base that wants to and is irrational lock
Trump at all levels and at all times. And honestly, like,
we've been here before. The Republican Party has been here before, concernatives,
you've been here before. Where my most relevant memory on
this is like it feels twenty thirteen or so when
(06:37):
Ted Cruz and some others were like, we can kill
Obamacare magically by shutting down the government, and I was like,
I don't know how that's going to work. But they
have a base that's saying you have to stand up
against this horrible thing. So I those are the dynamics
at play. But man, it's not going well for Schumer,
who did take tox with his little influencer my and
(07:00):
try to explain to people why it was important that
he not vote for the shutdown. Yeah, let's hear a
little bit from Van Jones, who I think we can
say safely has his finger on the pulse of the
left leaning base. He's reporting on CNN what he's hearing about,
how people feel about this. How angry are Democrats at
(07:20):
Leader Schumer.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I've never seen this level of volcanic anger at a
Democrat ever. You know, ever, we could be grumpy, we
can be frustrated with each other, there is a there
is a volcanic eruption of outrage at Leader Schumer because
we want a Mitch McConnell. I remember when Obama had
(07:41):
all the cards. Mitch McConnell drove Obama nuts, twisted his pinky,
broke his kneecaps, and got stuff done for Republicans When
they should have gotten an inch, they got miles. We
have a Senate, a majority leader who is beloved in
this party. But we want somebody who's to stand up
to this bully. Stand up this bully, do something. And
(08:03):
if you shut the government down and it gets it
gets a little bit crazy. At least some politics is
about the rationality. There's an emotional need to stop Donald
Trump and Elon must from running over this party. And
and I think Chuck Schumer has radically misread the room.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
He's right, but I would love to see that emotionality
or whatever he calls it, a little bit lower. Just
bring it down a notch. And I know that, you know,
I know that the right was just as guilty of it.
Obviously politics is very emotional, but just bring it down
just a touch.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, what he's missing or he's he's saying two different things,
and he's correct about both of them, but they don't
work together. Mitch McConnell was not the emotional yes such
a party.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
That's why people dislike him.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's why people don't like him. He was the tactical
voice and he was very good at it. And even
though he got stuff for people that al they wanted,
like he's the reason there's no Merrit Garland on the
Supreme Court. I know he is the reason. But there
are people in the Republican Party who hate him because
he didn't give them that.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Emotional He does not.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
He didn't give them that and that's what they wanted.
And I would argue to Democrats that, much like with Republicans,
go for the tactical wisdom. Pelosi is actually probably the
best counter part example here, although I think she's lost
a step and don't indulge the emotional part. That's the
part that doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Pelosi actually walked that tightrope quite well, being the tactical
genius and then the emotional ripping up her speech, and
she actually did nail that middle ground and they loved
her for it. It's a tough place to be. And
get such a good point about McConnell because he got
so many wins and yet he is considered I mean,
(09:54):
he's also obviously lost his step. He voted against Hegseth
and the Mother of Trumpsmini, and he's definitely on his
way out. But it's it's interesting how much he got
done and doesn't get the credit for because he was
unable to emote.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah. Well, I mean, and I think that in politics
that can you need it. You need it, and also
you if it takes you too far, your party will
end up where the Democrats are right now exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
You need both.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Needing the emoting so much that the idea that democrats
and liberals don't emote enough, is like like, oh, I
don't know if I can take any more. Guys, do
that somewhere else. It will steer you wrong if you're
not careful exactly, I think for the two of us,
for instance, And this is not what Democrats wants. Had
they had they shut down the government, I would have
(10:44):
been like, let's go to work figuring this out right.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
We would have loved it, and that would have made
them realize that they had made a terrible mistake.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
But crisis averted for now. But all of all our
government ever does is avert crises at the last second.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, we'll get every Yeah, see you guys again.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
In six This one last still September, so we have this.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
A little longer. Yeah, we'll be right back on normally.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Topic two.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Trump is using the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen ninety
eight to deport Venezuelan gang members, and people are unhappy
about this. I don't quite understand it here I am
reading from the Free Press. It's indirect defiance of a
federal judge's ruling. The Trump administration has flown two hundred
and fifty plus alleged migrant gang members to al Salvador,
(11:37):
where they will be held in a notorious megaprison. The
deportations come just hours after a US District Court judge
temporarily blocked the Trump administration from invoking the eighteenth century
Alien Enemies Act to remove the alleged gang members without
a formal hearing. The Trump administration decided the ruling did
not apply because the planes were outside US airspace. Well,
(11:59):
I don't know where that ends up, but I'm not
loving all the judges getting in the way of anything
that the Donald Trump administration wants to do. I see
it trickling down to the normies in my life, who
are like, what's up with all these judges and don't
understand how the president doesn't have the right to deport
(12:19):
gang members? That that's where we are. The White House
obviously said that the judges order itself was not lawful
and was issued after the group was deported. But the
argument that people are making are is the Act is
so old it hasn't been used since World War Two.
I don't understand how that's an argument, so what so
what the Constitution's old too, It's it's very really Yeah,
(12:41):
it kind of doesn't make sense to.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Me if you're here illegally. We don't need another reason.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Right, yeah, right. The president for sure does not need
another reason.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I don't. This is the thing is like all and
I think the for me, the pandemic anniversary is exacer
my feelings about this because so many of the arguments
the left is making on behalf of people who are
not citizens and who have been here illegally and have
actively been committing crimes, is that we must preserve at
(13:12):
all costs civil liberties for them that they happily discarded
during the pandemic. For citizens like that, that makes it
hard for me to side with you, like I'm not
going to do this like talmutic reading of every night
seventeen whatever law, whatever law.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yes, and then I'm reading the talmud right now. We
want no part of this.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I know. Sorry, it's an expression, but it's to come
to the conclusion that I don't know that to preserve
everything and anything for anyone wants to be in our
country at a time, because what the Left has revealed
about itself over the past five years is that indeed
they believe everyone has the right to be here, is
(13:57):
entitled to be here as long as you get here
you get all the stuff and then say you can
put up in a hotel. American citizens don't get that.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, you get checks. I mean, let me tell you.
I was a refuge to this country. We did not
get checks. We did not get we did not get
free anything. So it's a wild, wild scene when they're
trying to again push through benefits that Americans don't have.
And we saw that of course during the pandemic and
actuality when California schools were closed but illegal immigrants in
(14:28):
California had teachers from those closed schools come and teach
the children at those centers. It was like wait what.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That one really was a bit of a breaking point
for me.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I was like, they're doing what now?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Right? Yeah? Well the judge thing also, I have to say,
another judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate fired federal employees.
Another one has blocked DOSEE from accessing Social Security Administration
systems because they contained sensitive data. As if that data
is not already available to thousands of bureaucrats. Schmoe in
the yes, right, But Elon Musk is going to go
(15:04):
buy a new car with our with our information. It's
just I worry about the politicized courts. It's not my up,
my alley. I don't know enough about it, but I
can tell you from a normally perspective, it seems very
troubling that courts are able to stop basically anything that
(15:25):
they don't like, even you know, from on any level. Well,
and of course, yeah, go ahead, I feel like we're
gonna say the same thing.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Well, I was just going to say that I was
going to add a detail that the order from the
court about uh, the employees that have to be brought back,
those are probationary employees.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
The whole definition of probationary is that you do not
have guaranteed employment. Yeah, you do not have the right
to that job. At that point, you are serving a
probationary period during which your employer will decide if you
have the job for good. And the idea that federal
(16:03):
workers are so protect that even probationary workers cannot be removed, right,
is part of the problem for normies.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It is. And look, I believe in our system. I'm
sure it'll go through the courts and eventually what I
think is the right position will win out. But that's
a long process, and I don't like that these activist
judges are able to kind of hold up the process,
and you know, cause this ruckus in what's supposed to
be a kind of easy decision making time. That these
(16:33):
aren't complicated details. Again, I don't see why deporting Venezuelan
gang members should be difficult. And so what I was
going to add is, you know, there's also this whole
like the Trump administration is not following court orders. Wait
until everybody finds out about what the Biden administration did
where they overruled the Supreme Court which said you cannot
(16:56):
give you cannot pay off student loans, and they were
like to go ahead and pay off student loans anyway.
And nobody had a problem with that. Nobody said, oh,
our checks and balances are in danger. Nobody thought he was,
you know, an autocrat or a king or any of that.
They kind of just were like, oh, that's a good
thing that he's not listening to the courts.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah. No, it is a laudable thing. I mean, it
really is. Just when they do it, it's fine. That's
the rule. I wanted to add another bit of what
seems to be judicial activism happening in Maine, where the
main state Representative Laurel Libby filed a lawsuit over her
censure for a social media post that pointed out a
trans athlete in a girl's competition. She's on the right
(17:40):
side of that issue, along with eighty percent of Americans.
All of Maine's federal judges accused themselves from the case,
which I know there's been a lot of talk about
speech threats in the past week. Hers gets much less attention.
But she was told not to talk or vote or
represent her constituents because she in the wrong position on
(18:01):
trans athletes and women's sports. And no one's going to
hear her case because mysteriously they're all recused, but they're
not really giving reasons why they're recused, So she has
to go to another state. In right Island, right fundamental
liberty are acceptable. How are you know?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I just again, I always say this, but like on
the right, there would be a thousand think pieces about
how wrong this is, and we have a self check
system on the right. I get that there are people
who will, you know, follow Trump into the fire, and
obviously there's definitely that element as well, but we have
a whole universe of people who who love disagreeing with
(18:43):
the common wisdom of the right.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And look, sometimes that's us. I'm in there, yeah, right, right,
Sometimes that's us. Sometimes it's not. But the left just
doesn't have it. They are are completely just don't do it.
And anybody in left who does do it is sort
of on the right. It's it's they get kicked off
the plantation.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
And I think you saw in Van Jones's comments the
fact that they've never been this angry before. I'm like,
what have you all been doing right? Right? A, you
should have been angry much earlier. Yeah, and B we're
this angry at them all the time. That's how you
got trumped. Yeah, So yeah, I think they're they're adjusting
to that.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yeah, she ever damn case heard in her state. It's crazy,
it's insane. She shouldn't have to go to Rhode Island. No,
nobody should have to go to Rhode Island. We're going
to take a short break and come right back with normally.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Our last topic. I mean, we are still mad about it, bro,
and we are going to keep talking about it because
it is the five year University of COVID and there's
still so much to discuss. The New York Times is
now it can be told ing about COVID, and I
feel very bitter about that. Their COVID reporter is is
(20:00):
a Porva, Manda Vili, and she is terrible at her job.
The latest piece is that we were lied to about COVID, Yeah,
by her, We were lied to by her.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Well, and there's an op ed this this weekend that
was written by Zana Tofecki, who's like a public health writer. Yeah,
and she's as these people go, she's not the worst one.
But wouldn't it be wild to be a New York
Times reader or an NPR listener and just learned this
weekend that you were lied to about the Lab Lab
week theory by everyone on purpose? Because finally, writes, we
(20:39):
were badly misled about the event that changes changed our lives,
and people like you and I are like we who's
this week? Because I was saying way back in the
day that y'all were lying about this, and I was
told that I was a racist conspiracer. Right, so now
the readers of the New York Times get to learn
that now the truth isn't racist anymore. I can admit,
(21:05):
as to Fecky, does that in all likelihood this came
from my lab. She points out that Francis Collins was
involved in lying about it, that Fauci and his top
people were involved in lying about it, that they misled reporters,
that public health reporters at journals like Lancet and Nature
colluded with the government to lie about this possibility because
(21:28):
they decided that the lableek theory was going to be problematic,
probably for the CCP as part of it, for their funding,
for their careers, and for our feelings toward the Chinese people.
That's what they decided. And they decided that the less
racist version of this was that Chinese people were just
(21:50):
like eating bats out of wet market and that ended
up making the coronavirus.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, yeah, none of that makes any sense. Aporva was
again that's the reporter of the New York Times was
best known during the COVID years for her multi paragraph corrections,
and the paper had to issue. One of them was
an earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the
numbers of children age five to eleven with multi system
(22:18):
and lammatory syndrome. About four thousand have been diagnosed, not
died with the syndrome.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, that was a good one. Four thousand kids she said,
died from having this multi you know mis Another one
was At one point she wrote, nearly nine hundred thousand
children have been hospitalized during COVID. That number turned out
to be sixty three thousand. She was terrible at her job.
She continues in the role. And it's also important to
(22:45):
remember that the COVID years coincided with the cancel culture years,
and Bethany Mandela and I wrote a book that explored
some of this, called Stolen Youth. Check it out, still
available for purchase wherever you buy books. Donald McNeil was
the science and health reporter at the New York Times
who got fired for using the N word in a quote.
(23:07):
So he was quoting something and he used the N word,
and the New York Times was left with a porva
who called the lab theory racist and made tons of
errors and wouldn't report on the crisis happening correctly.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Well, and he was, yeah, he was canceled over this
incident where he was asked proactively about the N word
by young people who he was leading on a trip,
like these were like teenagers who were like, okay, well
it was a it was a discussion about how you
handle the word. No grace was given for his intent,
of course, So he's picked out of the New York
(23:42):
Times just when they need him because he was an
experienced science and public health reporter. A Porva takes over
and I came across one of her old tweets today.
Compared to the Sunday piece about how we were misled
in May of twenty twenty one, a Porva was still saying,
someday we will start talking about the lab like theory
and maybe even admit it's racist roots. But alas that
(24:05):
day is not here yet. So the pandemic just fueled this,
these ridiculous witch hunts that tossed people out on their
butts who shouldn't have been tossed out, and then gave
their jobs to people who demonstrably betrayed the public trust
over and over and over again. And then I wonder
(24:28):
why we don't listen to them, right?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Why Americans have lost such a significant amount of trust
in our health agencies and our media. Obviously it's because
of stuff like this. She obviously has never apologized for
calling people racist because they believed well ended up being
the truth. I actually again, like you said, I think
that it's far more racist to be like those crazy
Chinese people eat bats and that's how viruses get spread.
(24:51):
I don't get how that's not the more racist version.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
No, it's pretty bad, I will say. I read both
through this one and the Near Times's coverage of what
we've learned about school closures for the next pandemic. I
know you won't be surprised to learn that in what
we've learned, they didn't go to the people who did
it right. No, of course not and ask them what
should we learn. They didn't go to the rural counties
(25:17):
and the counties the Brave County. There's a one Brave
county right near Henryko County in Virginia that did open
much earlier than other parts of Virginia in an attempt
to get kids back on track. And man, were they
abused in the public eye just for attempting this. But
you know what, they did the right thing. So I'm
(25:38):
reading this piece from the New York Times about what
we've learned and noticed that, of course it's all the
old bad actors talking again. But the thing that really
struck me is that they report on the school closure
decision being made, and they say the American Academy of
Pediatrics issue to report in June twenty twenty recommending that
(25:59):
school's real Republican runs. States like Texas and Florida forged
a head with plans to offer in person instruction to
families who wanted it. Yet thousands of schools in Democratic
majority states like California, Oregon, Washington, and Maryland stayed closed
or partially closed for another full year. Policymakers who had
a role in those decisions argue that applying evidence from
abroad was difficult. Blah blah blah. The politicization of the
(26:21):
pandemic also played a role. President Trump repeatedly caught on
schools to reopen, while many Democratic officials and advocacy groups
fought for stricter safety measures and more federal aid to schools.
They report on this without saying the politicization came from
the American Academy of Pediatrics, who reversed course when Trump
(26:42):
agreed was Trump right because they didn't want to be
on the same side as Trump and they were willing
to sell out science and kids to do it.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yeah, like the American acadeistic Pediatrics is just They also
ended up arguing that kids didn't need to see faces
when they were learning to how to speak, something that
they had always believed. They reversed themselves on so many things,
the Fittings, Yeah, we're great, screens are so good. They
reversed themselves on so many things that they believed to
(27:11):
fit in with the political moment. Another obviously very famous
example was that all the medical professionals were saying that,
you know, you had to stay inside, you can't be
mingling in groups. But then the George Floyd riots happened,
and they said, oh, you should go, you should go
protest because this is more important. Well, a lot of
people noticed at that point that they didn't think it
(27:34):
was more important than like seeing their parents who might
not have that much time, or or getting their kids
into schools. It's important to keep talking about it. We're
going to keep talking about it because it's a moment
that still has Nobody has taken responsibility, nobody's been held accountable.
The New York Times doing these little drip drips five
years later of we were lied to, Like, no, we
(27:57):
were not lied to you. You were doing the live you.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
You lied I have found for it.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, and you and you made it hard for us
to tell the truth. You made it as difficult as possible.
You covered everything in a way that was completely opposite
of the truth. And I until somebody's held accountable, until
we know for sure this will never happen again, we're
going to keep talking about it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Well, And not only did they report things that weren't
the truth, they in many cases colluded with the federal
government or approvingly like clapped as the federal government censored
people right who disagreed with their reporting or disagreed with
their conclusions. I mean, that's that's a real thing that happened.
(28:44):
By the way, would you like to hear what Randy
Winegarden has learned.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I'm gonna say about Randy go ahead.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
She's quoted in the New York Times, and honestly, she's
smarter than Becky Pringle, who is the other head of
the teacher's unions, who's quote I will read next, because
she can fudget.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
She's like, Yes, I've learned a lot from this, said
Randy Winegarden, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in
a powerful force of democratic politics, who at times worked
behind the scenes to negotiate reopenings. No, she worked behind
the scenes to hold reopening's ransom. That's what she did right.
She also stood by locals in places like Philadelphia and Chicago,
where union members fought for vaccines, tests, ventilation, and other
(29:20):
safety measures even after classrooms and other parts of the
country had reopened. Miss Winegarden defended her members' rights to
work safely and emphasize the importance of ventilation, but said
she would strive to be clearer in the future that quote,
kids have to be the priority, that includes in person instruction.
She said, I thought I was pretty loud. She added,
(29:41):
I would be even louder. Oh my god, ma'am, you
are a liar, right, you were.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The person blocking the school door. You, Mitch, you can
cut that.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I don't think we should. I don't think we should.
So fakes it and that is a lie. Becky Pringle
of the National Education Association. She goes even further by
the way California Department of Public Health wouldn't even respond
to questions about school closures. Becky Pringle says that following
(30:15):
cautious Public Health Guide guidance was the right approach and
is the one she would follow again. What we needed
to do was listen to infectious disease experts. Miss Pringle said.
Those infectious disease experts, by the way, are the ones
who were lying to you, as The New York Times
just pointed out yesterday. Yeah, oh oh my lord.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
But you're right. You're right that Randy is much smarter
because she's painting herself as somebody who tried to get
schools open, and that's a crazy thing to do. But
you know, she has a very friendly media, compliant media.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Hard can you imagine being a Republican and getting away
with that answer? Like, I've learned a lot to do
the things that are popular now.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah. Yeah, and it was me who was doing the
things that were unpopular then.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
But we're not going to talk about that.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
So, yeah, we're still mad. I'm gonna stay mad, and
I have no problem with that, because, yeah, it's the
best way forward. It's the way to not forget what
they did to us.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Okay, I'm I'm going to leave you with one more
quote to be mad about. Yeah, this is Brent Jones,
superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, said he was not apologetic
about his system's eighteen month period of virtual and hybrid learning,
one of the longest in the country. I saw it
as a forced opportunity to step back. He said. We
were called upon, frankly to expand our mission to include
(31:32):
many other things nutritional, social, emotional, mental health. There was
a cry for support. Schools stepped into that gap. No,
they would do this again in a heartbeat. Yep, So
get ready to fight it when the time comes.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yes, I'll add one more thing to that. We could
just keep going forever. My governor in New York at
the time, Governor Angecomo, said we needed to reimagine schools.
And he said, we have all these buildings, what for,
basically saying we could all have our kids learn online.
That man is now trying to be mayor of New
(32:08):
York City. This is all again. Nothing is in the past.
Everything is in the future, and we should be ready
for it.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Okay, hold on, I know, do it? What I forgot
to mention this line from the New York Times piece. Yeah,
in some ways moving to online learning would be easier
next time, now that nearly all schools give students their
own laptops or tablets. Be ready for it, people, It
is coming. We've been right for five years we're right again.
(32:37):
They will do this in a heartbeat.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's right, and this time we hopefully will know what
to do well. Thanks for joining us on Normally Normally
airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you
get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at normallythepod
at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things
get weird, act normally
Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
normalist takes for women, use kids weird.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I am Mary Kathy him and I am Carol Marco
and H'm Mary Catherine. How was your weekend?
Speaker 1 (00:15):
It was pretty good. Had a nice dinner out, enjoyed
some chill time yesterday. Not really much going on as
far as plants. Watched robin Hood with my kids yesterday,
the Disney one.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Do they like it?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
That's a fantastic That's one of my favorites.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I haven't seen it. I have to see that one.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, gosh, it's so great.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Added to my list.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, well, they basically it was like nineteen seventy three
strange time, and they basically took English Middle medieval figures,
folk heroes and made them into rednecks. And that's why
I like it.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I like that, Okay, I'm going to enjoy that.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Clearly some good country music. It's fantastic. It's a weird thing.
It's a weird movie.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Speaking of medieval times. I went to the Renaissance Fair
in South Florida this weekend because I really love my
twelve year old son, who is you know, into this
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
It was ninety degrees.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It was like on dirt, so like as you're eating
their wares or whatever, it's like dirt is flying up everywhere.
It felt very medieval.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
I gotta tell you that. I was gonna say, that's
very much like the true experience that you're having. Aside
from the ninety degrees, right.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I felt like I was suffering the way they might
have been suffering. So yeah, I wanted to give a
shout out to my friend Josh Hammer. He has a
book out today called Israel and Civilization, The Fate of
the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West. It
is doing super well on Amazon right now. It's number
three on the entire site. I haven't read it yet,
(01:43):
but I know it's going to be a banger because
Josh is really smart and has it going on.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Yeah, I will look for that. I did not pre
order it, and I need to get on it.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I have pre ordered. I should be getting it today.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah, alrighty well, I got some news coming out of
the Capitol.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Guys.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
You know what I'd to myself, Carol. Every time we
do a fight over a government shut down and a
continuing resolution, which is these stop gap measures that they
passed when they can't figure out how to do the
rest of the budgeting, I think to myself, let's get
back together and do this in a couple of months,
which is what we do every single time. So you'll
remember in fall or in during the lame duck Biden time,
(02:22):
right before Christmas, they passed another continuing resolution that got
us to now, so the government was not shut down
over Christmas, that wasn't shut down in January or February.
We get to now and once again they have to
have this conversation. They're having this conversation about a continuing
resolution that basically continues what was happening.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Right in there.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
In the name, it just continues what was going on
during the Biden years. There are some things that are
in there that make it, don't make it totally clean,
as they call it, but it's basically that the House
by some miracle passes it. Way to go Speaker Mike Johnson.
I don't know how he managed that with his tiny margin,
but they passed it, and Democrats didn't know what to
(03:07):
do after that. I think they thought Johnson would fall
on his face. So this continuing resolution to prevent a
government shutdown, which I can have many problems with the
funding of the government as it stands, but they were
preventing a shutdown by passing this. It goes to the Senate,
at which point Schumer sort of promises some resistance he
(03:30):
can't really deliver. He's like, we should stand up against this.
We can't vote for a thing Trump once, the thing
that we already voted for and are on record supporting.
And also our whole argument to the American people is
that government is sacro sanct and important in their everyday
lives and we should not be on the side. Yes,
(03:53):
that's their argument. So then they're on this weird tight
wire tightrope where they're like, well, we can't vote for
anything Trump wants, but also we don't want the government
to shut down because the government is our greatest love
and passion. So Schumer ends up announcing, after sort of
fainting that he might block it. He announces, now I'm
(04:16):
going to vote for it, and that thing passed the Senate,
and oh boy.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, they're mad. The squad is mad. You know. It's
interesting because I very rarely say that I think Schumer
did the right thing. You know, I'm not against shutting
down the government and figuring out what our spending should be.
I get that it's portrayed as like antics or not
being serious or not being the adult or whatever. But
(04:44):
had that happened, Schumer would have gotten the blowback of it.
He is absolutely right to protect his own hide. Basically
the fact that the resistance or whatever they're called these days,
the squad people want him to stand in the way
of Trump getting any wins whatsoever. They don't seem to
(05:06):
realize that it will harm them, And I don't know
if it will harm them specifically. AOC is going to
get re elected no matter what, and you know people
like her in the Senate as well. But Schumer is
you know, feeling definitely some heat and is concerned that
it's going to affect.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Him well and for them. So I'm with you that sometimes,
like if there's a I know that the government shut
down is not smart politically for anyone basically. Let's however,
you and I are like, I mean, if the O
and B has to be declaring who's essential and non essential,
okat to hear who's non essential that I'm paying to
(05:46):
be at work. So that was what the Democrats were
up against because they're like well, if russ vaute over
at omb a Trump administration official and who who they
say is like the father of Project twenty twenty five, right,
that dude is put in charge of deciding who's essential
and non essential during a government like, I don't think
that will go well for our cause, which is federal bureaucrats.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So they're right, they're right, And while I would like
to see you know, that happen, they're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
For stopping that from happening. But they do have this
left leaning base that wants to and is irrational lock
Trump at all levels and at all times. And honestly, like,
we've been here before. The Republican Party has been here before, concernatives,
you've been here before. Where my most relevant memory on
this is like it feels twenty thirteen or so when
(06:37):
Ted Cruz and some others were like, we can kill
Obamacare magically by shutting down the government, and I was like,
I don't know how that's going to work. But they
have a base that's saying you have to stand up
against this horrible thing. So I those are the dynamics
at play. But man, it's not going well for Schumer,
who did take tox with his little influencer my and
(07:00):
try to explain to people why it was important that
he not vote for the shutdown. Yeah, let's hear a
little bit from Van Jones, who I think we can
say safely has his finger on the pulse of the
left leaning base. He's reporting on CNN what he's hearing about,
how people feel about this. How angry are Democrats at
(07:20):
Leader Schumer.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I've never seen this level of volcanic anger at a
Democrat ever. You know, ever, we could be grumpy, we
can be frustrated with each other, there is a there
is a volcanic eruption of outrage at Leader Schumer because
we want a Mitch McConnell. I remember when Obama had
(07:41):
all the cards. Mitch McConnell drove Obama nuts, twisted his pinky,
broke his kneecaps, and got stuff done for Republicans When
they should have gotten an inch, they got miles. We
have a Senate, a majority leader who is beloved in
this party. But we want somebody who's to stand up
to this bully. Stand up this bully, do something. And
(08:03):
if you shut the government down and it gets it
gets a little bit crazy. At least some politics is
about the rationality. There's an emotional need to stop Donald
Trump and Elon must from running over this party. And
and I think Chuck Schumer has radically misread the room.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
He's right, but I would love to see that emotionality
or whatever he calls it, a little bit lower. Just
bring it down a notch. And I know that, you know,
I know that the right was just as guilty of it.
Obviously politics is very emotional, but just bring it down
just a touch.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Well, what he's missing or he's he's saying two different things,
and he's correct about both of them, but they don't
work together. Mitch McConnell was not the emotional yes such
a party.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
That's why people dislike him.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
That's why people don't like him. He was the tactical
voice and he was very good at it. And even
though he got stuff for people that al they wanted,
like he's the reason there's no Merrit Garland on the
Supreme Court. I know he is the reason. But there
are people in the Republican Party who hate him because
he didn't give them that.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Emotional He does not.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
He didn't give them that and that's what they wanted.
And I would argue to Democrats that, much like with Republicans,
go for the tactical wisdom. Pelosi is actually probably the
best counter part example here, although I think she's lost
a step and don't indulge the emotional part. That's the
part that doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Pelosi actually walked that tightrope quite well, being the tactical
genius and then the emotional ripping up her speech, and
she actually did nail that middle ground and they loved
her for it. It's a tough place to be. And
get such a good point about McConnell because he got
so many wins and yet he is considered I mean,
(09:54):
he's also obviously lost his step. He voted against Hegseth
and the Mother of Trumpsmini, and he's definitely on his
way out. But it's it's interesting how much he got
done and doesn't get the credit for because he was
unable to emote.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah. Well, I mean, and I think that in politics
that can you need it. You need it, and also
you if it takes you too far, your party will
end up where the Democrats are right now exactly.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
You need both.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Needing the emoting so much that the idea that democrats
and liberals don't emote enough, is like like, oh, I
don't know if I can take any more. Guys, do
that somewhere else. It will steer you wrong if you're
not careful exactly, I think for the two of us,
for instance, And this is not what Democrats wants. Had
they had they shut down the government, I would have
(10:44):
been like, let's go to work figuring this out right.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
We would have loved it, and that would have made
them realize that they had made a terrible mistake.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
But crisis averted for now. But all of all our
government ever does is avert crises at the last second.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, we'll get every Yeah, see you guys again.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
In six This one last still September, so we have this.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
A little longer. Yeah, we'll be right back on normally.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Topic two.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Trump is using the Alien Enemies Act of seventeen ninety
eight to deport Venezuelan gang members, and people are unhappy
about this. I don't quite understand it here I am
reading from the Free Press. It's indirect defiance of a
federal judge's ruling. The Trump administration has flown two hundred
and fifty plus alleged migrant gang members to al Salvador,
(11:37):
where they will be held in a notorious megaprison. The
deportations come just hours after a US District Court judge
temporarily blocked the Trump administration from invoking the eighteenth century
Alien Enemies Act to remove the alleged gang members without
a formal hearing. The Trump administration decided the ruling did
not apply because the planes were outside US airspace. Well,
(11:59):
I don't know where that ends up, but I'm not
loving all the judges getting in the way of anything
that the Donald Trump administration wants to do. I see
it trickling down to the normies in my life, who
are like, what's up with all these judges and don't
understand how the president doesn't have the right to deport
(12:19):
gang members? That that's where we are. The White House
obviously said that the judges order itself was not lawful
and was issued after the group was deported. But the
argument that people are making are is the Act is
so old it hasn't been used since World War Two.
I don't understand how that's an argument, so what so
what the Constitution's old too, It's it's very really Yeah,
(12:41):
it kind of doesn't make sense to.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Me if you're here illegally. We don't need another reason.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Right, yeah, right. The president for sure does not need
another reason.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I don't. This is the thing is like all and
I think the for me, the pandemic anniversary is exacer
my feelings about this because so many of the arguments
the left is making on behalf of people who are
not citizens and who have been here illegally and have
actively been committing crimes, is that we must preserve at
(13:12):
all costs civil liberties for them that they happily discarded
during the pandemic. For citizens like that, that makes it
hard for me to side with you, like I'm not
going to do this like talmutic reading of every night
seventeen whatever law, whatever law.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yes, and then I'm reading the talmud right now. We
want no part of this.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I know. Sorry, it's an expression, but it's to come
to the conclusion that I don't know that to preserve
everything and anything for anyone wants to be in our
country at a time, because what the Left has revealed
about itself over the past five years is that indeed
they believe everyone has the right to be here, is
(13:57):
entitled to be here as long as you get here
you get all the stuff and then say you can
put up in a hotel. American citizens don't get that.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, you get checks. I mean, let me tell you.
I was a refuge to this country. We did not
get checks. We did not get we did not get
free anything. So it's a wild, wild scene when they're
trying to again push through benefits that Americans don't have.
And we saw that of course during the pandemic and
actuality when California schools were closed but illegal immigrants in
(14:28):
California had teachers from those closed schools come and teach
the children at those centers. It was like wait what.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That one really was a bit of a breaking point
for me.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I was like, they're doing what now?
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Right? Yeah? Well the judge thing also, I have to say,
another judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate fired federal employees.
Another one has blocked DOSEE from accessing Social Security Administration
systems because they contained sensitive data. As if that data
is not already available to thousands of bureaucrats. Schmoe in
the yes, right, But Elon Musk is going to go
(15:04):
buy a new car with our with our information. It's
just I worry about the politicized courts. It's not my up,
my alley. I don't know enough about it, but I
can tell you from a normally perspective, it seems very
troubling that courts are able to stop basically anything that
(15:25):
they don't like, even you know, from on any level. Well,
and of course, yeah, go ahead, I feel like we're
gonna say the same thing.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Well, I was just going to say that I was
going to add a detail that the order from the
court about uh, the employees that have to be brought back,
those are probationary employees.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Right.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
The whole definition of probationary is that you do not
have guaranteed employment. Yeah, you do not have the right
to that job. At that point, you are serving a
probationary period during which your employer will decide if you
have the job for good. And the idea that federal
(16:03):
workers are so protect that even probationary workers cannot be removed, right,
is part of the problem for normies.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It is. And look, I believe in our system. I'm
sure it'll go through the courts and eventually what I
think is the right position will win out. But that's
a long process, and I don't like that these activist
judges are able to kind of hold up the process,
and you know, cause this ruckus in what's supposed to
be a kind of easy decision making time. That these
(16:33):
aren't complicated details. Again, I don't see why deporting Venezuelan
gang members should be difficult. And so what I was
going to add is, you know, there's also this whole
like the Trump administration is not following court orders. Wait
until everybody finds out about what the Biden administration did
where they overruled the Supreme Court which said you cannot
(16:56):
give you cannot pay off student loans, and they were
like to go ahead and pay off student loans anyway.
And nobody had a problem with that. Nobody said, oh,
our checks and balances are in danger. Nobody thought he was,
you know, an autocrat or a king or any of that.
They kind of just were like, oh, that's a good
thing that he's not listening to the courts.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Yeah. No, it is a laudable thing. I mean, it
really is. Just when they do it, it's fine. That's
the rule. I wanted to add another bit of what
seems to be judicial activism happening in Maine, where the
main state Representative Laurel Libby filed a lawsuit over her
censure for a social media post that pointed out a
trans athlete in a girl's competition. She's on the right
(17:40):
side of that issue, along with eighty percent of Americans.
All of Maine's federal judges accused themselves from the case,
which I know there's been a lot of talk about
speech threats in the past week. Hers gets much less attention.
But she was told not to talk or vote or
represent her constituents because she in the wrong position on
(18:01):
trans athletes and women's sports. And no one's going to
hear her case because mysteriously they're all recused, but they're
not really giving reasons why they're recused, So she has
to go to another state. In right Island, right fundamental
liberty are acceptable. How are you know?
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I just again, I always say this, but like on
the right, there would be a thousand think pieces about
how wrong this is, and we have a self check
system on the right. I get that there are people
who will, you know, follow Trump into the fire, and
obviously there's definitely that element as well, but we have
a whole universe of people who who love disagreeing with
(18:43):
the common wisdom of the right.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
And look, sometimes that's us. I'm in there, yeah, right, right,
Sometimes that's us. Sometimes it's not. But the left just
doesn't have it. They are are completely just don't do it.
And anybody in left who does do it is sort
of on the right. It's it's they get kicked off
the plantation.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
And I think you saw in Van Jones's comments the
fact that they've never been this angry before. I'm like,
what have you all been doing right? Right? A, you
should have been angry much earlier. Yeah, and B we're
this angry at them all the time. That's how you
got trumped. Yeah, So yeah, I think they're they're adjusting
to that.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yeah, she ever damn case heard in her state. It's crazy,
it's insane. She shouldn't have to go to Rhode Island. No,
nobody should have to go to Rhode Island. We're going
to take a short break and come right back with normally.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Our last topic. I mean, we are still mad about it, bro,
and we are going to keep talking about it because
it is the five year University of COVID and there's
still so much to discuss. The New York Times is
now it can be told ing about COVID, and I
feel very bitter about that. Their COVID reporter is is
(20:00):
a Porva, Manda Vili, and she is terrible at her job.
The latest piece is that we were lied to about COVID, Yeah,
by her, We were lied to by her.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
Well, and there's an op ed this this weekend that
was written by Zana Tofecki, who's like a public health writer. Yeah,
and she's as these people go, she's not the worst one.
But wouldn't it be wild to be a New York
Times reader or an NPR listener and just learned this
weekend that you were lied to about the Lab Lab
week theory by everyone on purpose? Because finally, writes, we
(20:39):
were badly misled about the event that changes changed our lives,
and people like you and I are like we who's
this week? Because I was saying way back in the
day that y'all were lying about this, and I was
told that I was a racist conspiracer. Right, so now
the readers of the New York Times get to learn
that now the truth isn't racist anymore. I can admit,
(21:05):
as to Fecky, does that in all likelihood this came
from my lab. She points out that Francis Collins was
involved in lying about it, that Fauci and his top
people were involved in lying about it, that they misled reporters,
that public health reporters at journals like Lancet and Nature
colluded with the government to lie about this possibility because
(21:28):
they decided that the lableek theory was going to be problematic,
probably for the CCP as part of it, for their funding,
for their careers, and for our feelings toward the Chinese people.
That's what they decided. And they decided that the less
racist version of this was that Chinese people were just
(21:50):
like eating bats out of wet market and that ended
up making the coronavirus.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yeah, yeah, none of that makes any sense. Aporva was
again that's the reporter of the New York Times was
best known during the COVID years for her multi paragraph corrections,
and the paper had to issue. One of them was
an earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the
numbers of children age five to eleven with multi system
(22:18):
and lammatory syndrome. About four thousand have been diagnosed, not
died with the syndrome.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, that was a good one. Four thousand kids she said,
died from having this multi you know mis Another one
was At one point she wrote, nearly nine hundred thousand
children have been hospitalized during COVID. That number turned out
to be sixty three thousand. She was terrible at her job.
She continues in the role. And it's also important to
(22:45):
remember that the COVID years coincided with the cancel culture years,
and Bethany Mandela and I wrote a book that explored
some of this, called Stolen Youth. Check it out, still
available for purchase wherever you buy books. Donald McNeil was
the science and health reporter at the New York Times
who got fired for using the N word in a quote.
(23:07):
So he was quoting something and he used the N word,
and the New York Times was left with a porva
who called the lab theory racist and made tons of
errors and wouldn't report on the crisis happening correctly.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Well, and he was, yeah, he was canceled over this
incident where he was asked proactively about the N word
by young people who he was leading on a trip,
like these were like teenagers who were like, okay, well
it was a it was a discussion about how you
handle the word. No grace was given for his intent,
of course, So he's picked out of the New York
(23:42):
Times just when they need him because he was an
experienced science and public health reporter. A Porva takes over
and I came across one of her old tweets today.
Compared to the Sunday piece about how we were misled
in May of twenty twenty one, a Porva was still saying,
someday we will start talking about the lab like theory
and maybe even admit it's racist roots. But alas that
(24:05):
day is not here yet. So the pandemic just fueled this,
these ridiculous witch hunts that tossed people out on their
butts who shouldn't have been tossed out, and then gave
their jobs to people who demonstrably betrayed the public trust
over and over and over again. And then I wonder
(24:28):
why we don't listen to them, right?
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Why Americans have lost such a significant amount of trust
in our health agencies and our media. Obviously it's because
of stuff like this. She obviously has never apologized for
calling people racist because they believed well ended up being
the truth. I actually again, like you said, I think
that it's far more racist to be like those crazy
Chinese people eat bats and that's how viruses get spread.
(24:51):
I don't get how that's not the more racist version.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
No, it's pretty bad, I will say. I read both
through this one and the Near Times's coverage of what
we've learned about school closures for the next pandemic. I
know you won't be surprised to learn that in what
we've learned, they didn't go to the people who did
it right. No, of course not and ask them what
should we learn. They didn't go to the rural counties
(25:17):
and the counties the Brave County. There's a one Brave
county right near Henryko County in Virginia that did open
much earlier than other parts of Virginia in an attempt
to get kids back on track. And man, were they
abused in the public eye just for attempting this. But
you know what, they did the right thing. So I'm
(25:38):
reading this piece from the New York Times about what
we've learned and noticed that, of course it's all the
old bad actors talking again. But the thing that really
struck me is that they report on the school closure
decision being made, and they say the American Academy of
Pediatrics issue to report in June twenty twenty recommending that
(25:59):
school's real Republican runs. States like Texas and Florida forged
a head with plans to offer in person instruction to
families who wanted it. Yet thousands of schools in Democratic
majority states like California, Oregon, Washington, and Maryland stayed closed
or partially closed for another full year. Policymakers who had
a role in those decisions argue that applying evidence from
abroad was difficult. Blah blah blah. The politicization of the
(26:21):
pandemic also played a role. President Trump repeatedly caught on
schools to reopen, while many Democratic officials and advocacy groups
fought for stricter safety measures and more federal aid to schools.
They report on this without saying the politicization came from
the American Academy of Pediatrics, who reversed course when Trump
(26:42):
agreed was Trump right because they didn't want to be
on the same side as Trump and they were willing
to sell out science and kids to do it.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yeah, like the American acadeistic Pediatrics is just They also
ended up arguing that kids didn't need to see faces
when they were learning to how to speak, something that
they had always believed. They reversed themselves on so many things,
the Fittings, Yeah, we're great, screens are so good. They
reversed themselves on so many things that they believed to
(27:11):
fit in with the political moment. Another obviously very famous
example was that all the medical professionals were saying that,
you know, you had to stay inside, you can't be
mingling in groups. But then the George Floyd riots happened,
and they said, oh, you should go, you should go
protest because this is more important. Well, a lot of
people noticed at that point that they didn't think it
(27:34):
was more important than like seeing their parents who might
not have that much time, or or getting their kids
into schools. It's important to keep talking about it. We're
going to keep talking about it because it's a moment
that still has Nobody has taken responsibility, nobody's been held accountable.
The New York Times doing these little drip drips five
years later of we were lied to, Like, no, we
(27:57):
were not lied to you. You were doing the live you.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
You lied I have found for it.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, and you and you made it hard for us
to tell the truth. You made it as difficult as possible.
You covered everything in a way that was completely opposite
of the truth. And I until somebody's held accountable, until
we know for sure this will never happen again, we're
going to keep talking about it.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Well, And not only did they report things that weren't
the truth, they in many cases colluded with the federal
government or approvingly like clapped as the federal government censored
people right who disagreed with their reporting or disagreed with
their conclusions. I mean, that's that's a real thing that happened.
(28:44):
By the way, would you like to hear what Randy
Winegarden has learned.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
I'm gonna say about Randy go ahead.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
She's quoted in the New York Times, and honestly, she's
smarter than Becky Pringle, who is the other head of
the teacher's unions, who's quote I will read next, because
she can fudget.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
She's like, Yes, I've learned a lot from this, said
Randy Winegarden, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in
a powerful force of democratic politics, who at times worked
behind the scenes to negotiate reopenings. No, she worked behind
the scenes to hold reopening's ransom. That's what she did right.
She also stood by locals in places like Philadelphia and Chicago,
where union members fought for vaccines, tests, ventilation, and other
(29:20):
safety measures even after classrooms and other parts of the
country had reopened. Miss Winegarden defended her members' rights to
work safely and emphasize the importance of ventilation, but said
she would strive to be clearer in the future that quote,
kids have to be the priority, that includes in person instruction.
She said, I thought I was pretty loud. She added,
(29:41):
I would be even louder. Oh my god, ma'am, you
are a liar, right, you were.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
The person blocking the school door. You, Mitch, you can
cut that.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I don't think we should. I don't think we should.
So fakes it and that is a lie. Becky Pringle
of the National Education Association. She goes even further by
the way California Department of Public Health wouldn't even respond
to questions about school closures. Becky Pringle says that following
(30:15):
cautious Public Health Guide guidance was the right approach and
is the one she would follow again. What we needed
to do was listen to infectious disease experts. Miss Pringle said.
Those infectious disease experts, by the way, are the ones
who were lying to you, as The New York Times
just pointed out yesterday. Yeah, oh oh my lord.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
But you're right. You're right that Randy is much smarter
because she's painting herself as somebody who tried to get
schools open, and that's a crazy thing to do. But
you know, she has a very friendly media, compliant media.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Hard can you imagine being a Republican and getting away
with that answer? Like, I've learned a lot to do
the things that are popular now.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Yeah. Yeah, and it was me who was doing the
things that were unpopular then.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
But we're not going to talk about that.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
So, yeah, we're still mad. I'm gonna stay mad, and
I have no problem with that, because, yeah, it's the
best way forward. It's the way to not forget what
they did to us.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Okay, I'm I'm going to leave you with one more
quote to be mad about. Yeah, this is Brent Jones,
superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, said he was not apologetic
about his system's eighteen month period of virtual and hybrid learning,
one of the longest in the country. I saw it
as a forced opportunity to step back. He said. We
were called upon, frankly to expand our mission to include
(31:32):
many other things nutritional, social, emotional, mental health. There was
a cry for support. Schools stepped into that gap. No,
they would do this again in a heartbeat. Yep, So
get ready to fight it when the time comes.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yes, I'll add one more thing to that. We could
just keep going forever. My governor in New York at
the time, Governor Angecomo, said we needed to reimagine schools.
And he said, we have all these buildings, what for,
basically saying we could all have our kids learn online.
That man is now trying to be mayor of New
(32:08):
York City. This is all again. Nothing is in the past.
Everything is in the future, and we should be ready
for it.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Okay, hold on, I know, do it? What I forgot
to mention this line from the New York Times piece. Yeah,
in some ways moving to online learning would be easier
next time, now that nearly all schools give students their
own laptops or tablets. Be ready for it, people, It
is coming. We've been right for five years we're right again.
(32:37):
They will do this in a heartbeat.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
That's right, and this time we hopefully will know what
to do well. Thanks for joining us on Normally Normally
airs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you
get your podcasts. Get in touch with us at normallythepod
at gmail dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things
get weird, act normally
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